A question to ask the Candidates

There has been a lot of talk about Obama’s VP, McCain’s position on the war, Obama’s position on the war, but the real menace that stands on the horizon is the question of Iran. I come to the table with an interesting set of presuppositions. I am a Christian who largely disagrees with the republican party, but I do not embrace democrats either. I dislike the fact that abortion is often a major issue for Christian voters in the presidential election. If one cares so much about abortion, I would challenge these same Christian voters to name their senators, their congressman or woman, and their position on abortion because these are the legislators. Last time I checked the president can only sign things the legislators enact. In other words, when looking at the credentials of presidential hopefuls, I would think it would be important to look mostly at their main job: commander in chief of our armed forces and talking head of the American people.

In other words, I am of the opinion the foreign affairs and presidential positions on these foreign affairs should weigh heavily on the minds of Americans because these are the things the president will spend the majority of his time doing. The biggest foreign affairs question that Americans should be asking is, “What will the next president’s position on Iran be?” The problem, however, is that many Americans are woefully ignorant on the history of America’s relationship to Iran. Stephen Kinzer recently gave an excellent history of America’s interventions over the last century on CSPAN at a future of freedom conference. In it he detailed the fact that in 1953 the American CIA led a coup to overthrow a leader who was attempting to retake control of the oil companies out of the hands of the British after World War II. In it he talked about the 1979 hostage crisis where one of the hostages retold a very telling story.

One of the hostages began yelling at his captors when they entered his cell and said, “You have no right do this, you have no right to take a country hostage.” After this, his Iranian captor said, “In 1953 you took a whole country hostage.”

My question to both the candidates: Would you be willing to apologize for the events of 1953, or will they, like Jimmy Carter, call the events “ancient history?”

4 thoughts on “A question to ask the Candidates”

Yew, but for the most part we already know the answer to that question. We know that McCain will not talk unless preconditions are met and that Obama seems willing to talk to all Arab states. But I feel that my question gets to the heart of how Obama would talk. Would he be willing to try and build bridges and explain that America has been wrong in the past. This would really be change that we could believe in.

Hi Danny,
thanks for the comment the other day!
I too have been asking myself questions similar to yours in this post and the post on Obama and Iraq. Both McCain and Obama’s national and foreign policies, in my opinion, overstep the bounds of what a government is purposed to do.

You should check out the book, “Are We Rome: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America,” by Cullen Murphy.

I do understand why an issue such as abortion may affect someone’s vote, because the president nominates supreme court justices who can make final rulings on issues like abortion (i.e. Roe V. Wade). But more importantly, in my opinion, the Supreme Court decides on matters of constitutionality it’s implicit interpretations, which should be on the minds of every voter.

Yeah. I understand where you are coming from Nate. But I am, for the most part, pro-choice. I don’t believe the Christian position should be telling others outside the church what they can or cannot do. I believe we should more involved in the adoption and foster care programs. This is something we can fix. We can’t make people choose not to have sex, but we can help make the world better by taking care of the results of those actions.